Spark
by Robin Red R
Summary: "So…You never told me you liked Wally." "You never told me you liked -Robin-." Artemis/Zatanna: Snaibsel - Post-Auld Aquaintances. Oneshot.


**Title: **Spark

**Rating: **K+ / T

**Warning: **Fem-Slash (Girl/girl), UST, some suggestive themes, and kissing.

**Summary: **"So…You never told me you liked Wally." "You never told me you liked _Robin_."Snaibsel: Artemis/Zatanna - Post Auld Acquaintances | Oneshot | Request for Jujubes45.

**Author's Note: **A fic written for my best friend (Jujubes45), who got me into Snaibsel in the first place. I know I'm writing for a very small fandom here, but I hope I manage to make you ship this when you're done reading! XD Please review, it's appreciated ^.^

**Disclaimer: **Nope, don't own. Or Birdflash and Snaibsel would be c.a.n.o.n.

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**Spark**

**~x~**

_{Mount Justice, Happy Harbor,_

_January 1, 00:36 EDT}_

Zatanna padded quietly down the dark halls of Mount Justice. The lights were dimmed; everyone was still out in the living room celebrating the team's victory, as well as the New Year. She could hear the muffled murmur of merry voices from behind her, the occasional laugh, or the clink of a glass.

"_Emit ot yrt tuo eht wen kool…" _**[1] **she incanted in a low murmur, pausing as a soft whirlwind of air spiraled around her, lifting off the white shirt, black blazer and tie, and replacing it with loose pants and a purple tank top. She licked her parched lips, courtesy of a few strenuous hours of spell-casting, and tasted a dark, musky flavor on them. She'd come to recognize it as something characteristic of Gotham. First, she'd smelt it on Robin (and now she'd just tasted it on his lips a few minutes ago). Then, once she got closer to Artemis, she'd begun to smell it on _her _too. It had come as less of a surprise, then, when her friend had finally revealed her secrets and her true home to the rest of the team. Zatanna sighed out deeply, her breath blowing a few stray strands of ebony hair out of her face.

After passing the door to M'gann's room, she was about to open that of her own when she heard a soft step behind her.

Turning on her heel with a swift, surefooted movement, she saw that the door opposite hers now stood ajar. The familiar figure of her best friend was silhouetted against the light from inside her room, though her face was cast in shadow. In her characteristic pose, Artemis stood with feet planted firmly and her hands on her cocked hips. They regarded each other in silence for a moment, before Artemis shifted, her face tilting questioningly to the side.

"Well don't just _stand_ there, come on in," she smirked, nudging the door open wider with her toe in invitation. Zatanna hesitated a fraction of a moment, then smiled and left the darkness of the hall for the warm orange glow that illuminated Artemis's room.

It wasn't uncommon for Artemis to invite her in; despite being generally protective about her personal space and belongings, she never seemed to mind Zatanna's presence. Even M'gann wasn't awarded that privilege, to Zatanna's secret pleasure. She decided that the reason why her heart now beat in her throat and her mouth felt dry was completely unrelated and illogical.

She sat down heavily on the single bed which stood against the wall in Artemis's room. It was simple and bare; nothing to see that would really give an outside viewer any idea of the girl who lived there. Only an old, threadbare teddy-bear sat on the pillow, like a forgotten memory.

Artemis closed the door and groaned, then raised her arms above her head, eyes squeezing shut as she stretched. Zatanna watched her, her fingers subconsciously fiddling with the hem of her shirt. The archer's costume, already cut to show her midriff, now slid upwards to bare more of the creamy-golden skin of her toned stomach. Her spine arched in a beautiful bend, the pop of her bones as she flexed audible. Zatanna didn't look away.

Artemis pulled off her fingerless gloves with her teeth and tossed them unceremoniously on the floor. She shot an unreadable glance at Zatanna.

"What's up? You're unusually quiet. It's New Year's you know, a time for celebrating…" her rough voice punctuated the silence.

"Oh no, it's nothing. I'm just… tired," the magician replied, sinking further into the bed. That, actually, was not a lie. She was all but tuckered out… They had, after all, just spent the last two hours battling head to head with the entire _Justice League, _of all people. The magician could already feel a killer headache coming on. But that wasn't the entire reason why she was so quiet.

Artemis simply nodded in acquiescence, before turning her back on her friend as she began to strip off her green-tinted costume. Zatanna forced back the blush that threatened to break out over her cheeks, and focused her attention instead on a chipped handle of Artemis's dresser. Girls change in front of each other all the time, no problem.

"So…" she began to break the silence, still keeping her eyes averted. "You never told me you liked Wally."

"You never told me you liked _Robin,"_ was Artemis's curt reply, answered without a moment's hesitation. Zatanna looked up in surprise, because Artemis's voice had almost sounded… snappy? However, she immediately fixed her eyes on the floor again when she saw that Artemis was still half-naked.

"Um…" Zatanna bit her lip, her fingers fiddling with her shirt again as she always did when she was nervous. "Well, I'm not entirely sure if I do." And she wasn't. Sure, she'd kind of crushed on Robin when she first joined the team, but it hadn't lasted. They just didn't fit together right, contrary to what she would have first thought. They were too _similar, _in a way, especially after she lost her father to Nabu. The kiss earlier hadn't been bad either, but… Actually, she didn't quite know _why_ she had even kissed him in the first place. She'd just seen Wally scoop Artemis up, and something had twinged in the depths of her stomach. Before she'd known what she was doing, she'd stepped forward and pulled Robin towards her.

"How was kissing Wally?" she asked instead, casting Artemis a glance out of the corner of her eye. She breathed a sigh of relief seeing that the archer was now fully dressed again. Tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear, she shifted on the bed to face the blonde, pulling her knees up to sit cross-legged. Artemis sat down opposite her and chuckled softly.

"Eh well, I can't really agree with all those 'smooching skills' that he's been boasting about for the last year," she answered with a lazy grin, reaching up to tug the hairband from her thick mane of hair. The golden strands cascaded down her back, free at last from the constraining pony-tail. Zatanna stared at her for a moment, transfixed by the way her new hairstyle changed Artemis's appearance so drastically. God, she'd never realized quite how long the archer's hair was…

"Well okay, he's a good kisser, I'll give him that. But there just wasn't… hmm, there wasn't a spark, you know?" Artemis continued, fighting with a knot in her thick hair, and only making it worse. Zatanna, on an impulse, leaned forward and started working her slender fingers through Artemis's hair.

"I see what you mean," she said, her bottom lip turning into a pout as she tried to untangle her fingers from the blonde's mess of a hair. "Don't you have a brush or something?" she muttered under her breath in faked frustration. Fact of the matter was, Artemis's hair was gorgeously smooth and soft, and she loved the feeling of it wrapped around her fingers.

"Ow, that hurts," grunted Artemis as Zatanna accidentally tugged too hard, finally freeing her fingers. Deciding that a brush really was needed to continue fixing Artemis's hair, the magician's eyes glowed 'Kid Flash-yellow' for an instant as she silently summoned the hair brush from Artemis's dresser into her awaiting hand. She began brushing her friend's hair with long, steady strokes. Artemis closed her eyes, leaning subconsciously into the touch.

"And what about with Robin? Was there a spark?" she asked curiously in reference to her earlier statement, with an underlying tone to her voice which Zatanna couldn't quite place. She paused for a second, and then resumed her brushing.

"No… not really. I mean, it was nice and all, but…" she trailed off, licking her lips. "It's not like I have much experience anyway," she murmured, a blush just touching the tips of her ears.

"Oh, was that your first kiss?" laughed Artemis in slightly mocking surprise, twisting her torso around to look at her friend. Zatanna didn't meet her grey-eyed gaze.

"No!" she snapped with a little more sharpness than she had intended. "There was… a boy last year," she elaborated, with a deliberately softer tone to make up for it. She resolutely refused to acknowledge the blush that was creeping into her pale cheeks. Artemis, thankfully, said nothing, only eyed her with a thoughtful look.

"…Have you ever kissed a girl?" the archer asked suddenly, her face still turned towards Zatanna. The other girl recoiled as quickly as if she'd been struck.

"_What?!" _

"Well, have you?" Artemis said it in such a matter-of-fact tone, even shrugging a little. Like it was nothing. Like people asked each other that all the time. Zatanna didn't even notice when the hairbrush slipped from her lax fingers and fell to the carpeted floor with a soft thud.

Artemis turned around, till she was fully facing the magician without having to crane her neck around uncomfortably, her knee touching Zatanna's thigh. Her hair, now much more manageable, hung over her shoulders in gentle waves. Zatanna had the bizarre urge to tuck it behind Artemis's ears. Maybe that was something friends did, too? Like it was nothing? She couldn't even tell, anymore.

Artemis laughed, and it was a sound like a ringing of brass bells, deep and warm, and beautiful. Zatanna realized that Artemis had laughed more in the last half hour with her than she had in the last three weeks. It made her feel all tingly inside.

"Guess that's a 'no'?" she stated rhetorically in response to Zatanna's stunned silence. "Well then. Me neither. And don't tell me you haven't ever thought about it, because _everyone_ has at some point. Do you want to try? Seeing as both of our kiss-partners earlier weren't all that… asterous?" she rattled off briskly, using a Robin-ism just because it _fit. _

"W-wha—" Zatanna tried in vain to clear her mind and form some sort of intelligible speech. Artemis was… Artemis wanted to _kiss _her? Something just felt fundamentally wrong about thinking that sentence out loud in her head. Wrong, but thrilling and amazing, and no way was she ever going to admit how much that made her heart race.

Artemis shrugged, seeing as she wasn't getting a response either way from the other girl, and leaned forward. She set a hand on Zatanna's knee to keep her balance, reaching upwards with the other one to slide it around the base of the magician's neck. Their faces were so close together, she could feel Zatanna's quick breaths against her lips.

"_P-pots…" _Zatanna whispered with such a lack of conviction that she almost winced at herself. And why should she want to stop? Artemis was the one insinuating this all here… if _she_ thought it was okay then why not just go along with it? She'd deal with the consequences later.

Zatanna's gaze flickered from Artemis's warm grey eyes to her full lips and back again. Then her eyes fluttered closed, because if she stared any longer then she'd go cross-eyed. And before she even had the chance to mentally prepare herself, Artemis's lips were on her own, pressing with a firm confidence that made Zatanna's insides melt into a puddle of goo. Oh wow, she thought she had a _little _more self-control then this.

Zatanna's lips were chaffed from the long day of spell-casting, (something the glass of champagne Wally had smuggled them all hadn't really helped), but Artemis massaged them with her soft lips and slick tongue till the dryness went out of them. The older of the two exhaled heavily through her nose, as if she'd been holding in a breath, and the warm air ghosted over Zatanna's pale cheeks. She felt a fire ignite in her stomach, slowly expanding and enveloping her in warmth; all kindled by Artemis's skilled lips moving against her own, pressing into her. So she kissed back, imitating Artemis's moves because she didn't know any herself, tentatively at first, but quickly gaining confidence from the approving sounds Artemis made.

And soon the rebellious, self-assured Zatanna was back. Ignoring the fear and the warning that her mind tried to tell her, she slid her palms up Artemis's arms and shoulders to wrap around her neck and pull her close, her lips parting slightly and her head tilting to give them better access. Artemis's arms were beautifully muscled, probably due to her incredible skill and practice with a bow and arrow. Somehow she managed to pull off being absurdly muscled yet still having that feminine grace; that was just one of the many things Zatanna envied and admired.

Artemis tasted like Gotham (a bit like Robin), but with some deeper, underlying scent. Spicy and sweet; tantalizing and delicious. Chocolate and orange, pepper and salt. Almost on their own account, Zatanna's hands moved up into her silky blonde hair, where they tangled into the newly-brushed strands. _Not that either of them cared._ A soft moan carried across the stillness of the room, but she couldn't tell who had uttered it. _Not that it mattered._

It was Zatanna, however, who pulled away first, her conscious mind finally catching up to her actions. She gasped for a breath, lost her balance because she'd been leaning so far backwards, and collapsed on her back on the soft covers with Artemis half-straddling her. She blinked, her eyes focusing back in to lock with a pair of dark grey ones.

Artemis's smooth, olive-skinned cheeks were flushed with an attractive red, and her lips shone in the dim, golden light of her room. Her hair was a mess again, standing around her head like a frazzled mane. Zatanna didn't think she herself fared much better, but that wasn't the point.

The archer opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again without a word. For once, the snarky, always-have-a-comeback-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue Artemis seemed to be tongue-tied.

There was an awkward silence where the two teenage girls stared at each other, not quite sure what to make of their muddled emotions. But neither could deny the definitive _spark _that had ignited in their hearts at the first touch of their lips, an action so innocent in itself, yet heavy with meaning. The spark that now set their bodies alight and their nerves on fire, tuned in each other's slightest movements. A spark which Zatanna had not felt when she had kissed Robin, and one Artemis had not felt when Wally had kissed _her_.

"…Want to do it again?"

A spark which threatened to start a blazing fire.

"…Yeah…"

_Not that either of them were against that._

_**~x~Fin****~x~**_

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_**[1] **_"Time to try out the new look…"as Zatanna said in 'Humanity'.

Tried a hand with a new kind of style of writing here, what do you think? This actually evolved into something completely different than what I had originally planned, but it still turned out relatively okay… I hope ;w; Luv you Julia, hope this is what you were looking for ^^

Back from my unannounced hiatus from FF.N. Need to catch up on all that I've missed XD

Please take the few extra minutes to write a review, it means so much more if you tell me _what _you liked/didn't like, rather than just fave-and-running ;D Thank you! You're all asterous ^^


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